Why is it that a redeemed person who believes in God and believes in His name can still be in danger of condemnation?
Let’s read Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NASB). Let’s also consider the words of the Lord Jesus Himself in John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION; but is passed from death unto life.” That’s pretty clear and emphatic isn’t it?
Let’s read the words of the Lord Jesus from the cross. We read in John 19:28-30, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, IT IS FINISHED: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” “IT IS FINISHED.” What a marvelous and triumphant cry from the lips of our savior just seconds before He dismissed His spirit from His body. In the Greek, IT IS FINISHED is only one word, “TELEO.”
In Luke 8:31, this word is translated ‘accomplished’.
In Matthew 17:24, this word is translated ‘pay’.
By exclaiming IT IS FINISHED, the Lord virtually was saying that He had accomplished His purpose of offering Himself for our sins. He was saying, “PAID.” Our sin debt had been paid completely by the giving of Himself and the shedding of His precious blood for us. PAID. When we accept Christ as our savior, we stand before God with all our sins forgiven and our debt paid. We have been “made the righteousness of God in him.” (Read 2 Corinthians 5:21) How could a righteous God condemn us for something the Lord Jesus paid for by giving Himself for us?
Let’s consider the precious and assuring words of Romans 8:34-39, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
My dear friend, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you are beyond condemnation. NOTHING shall be able to separate you from “the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Again, these truths are clear and emphatic. May you find comfort and strength in God’s Word. The Lord Jesus assures us in John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them ETERNAL LIFE; and they shall NEVER PERISH, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (323.4)